The number of online grooming crimes against children hit a record high in the last year, police figures show.
A total of 6,350 crimes related to sexual communication with a child were recorded in the year to March 2023, a rise of 82% since the offence was first defined in 2017.
In all, around 34,000 online grooming offences were recorded by UK police forces over the past six years, according to data gathered by NSPCC through freedom of information requests.
Children under 12 made up a quarter of the total number of victims, the charity said.
Girls were targeted in 83% of cases where the gender was known.
Snapchat was used in 26% of instances, while Meta‘s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were used in 47% of cases where the means of communication was recorded.
In total, 150 different games, apps, and websites were used to target children.
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‘He used images to control me’
A 19-year-old woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she was groomed aged 15 by a man posing as a boy she was speaking to on Yubo, a French social networking app that lets users join live-streamed group videos.
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The man typically became angry if she took too long to reply and would not accept it when she ended their conversations on the app.
“He just found me on Instagram and moved to messaging me directly there,” she told the NSPCC.
At his request, she had sent him pictures of herself naked.
“He used the images to control me,” she said. “I wasn’t even allowed to use the toilet without his permission.
“I was afraid to tell anyone because of the photos and his threats. He threatened to share the images of me with friends and family he’d found through my social media if I stopped replying.”
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Grooming gang victim: ‘I’ve heard it all before’
‘Ground-breaking safety bill desperately needed’
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said the research highlights the scale of child abuse happening on social media.
“The number of offences must serve as a reminder of why the Online Safety Bill is so important and why the ground-breaking protections it will give children are desperately needed,” he said.
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The NSPCC welcomed the strengthening of the legislation relating to private messaging and added: “It’s now up to tech firms, including those highlighted by these stark figures today, to make sure their current sites and future services do not put children at unacceptable risk of abuse.”
A British man is one of 14 people who were killed when an alleged Islamic State supporter drove a truck into crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans.
The city’s coroner said the preliminary cause of death for the British citizen was blunt force injuries.
Their identity has been temporarily withheld at the request of the family “pending finalisation of international arrangements”.
Dozens of people were also injured when 42-year-old army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rented truck rammed into people in New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
A senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official has said the attack was “premeditated” and an “evil” act of terrorism, and said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS”, also known as Islamic State.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told Sky News: “We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in New Orleans and are in contact with local authorities.”
The coroner has also identified the majority of the victims in the attack.
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They are:
Andrew Dauphin, 26, from Montgomery, Alabama
Kareem Badawi, 23, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Brandon Taylor, 43, from Harvey, Louisiana
Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, from Gretna, Louisiana
Matthew Tenedorio, 25, from Picayune, Mississippi
Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, from Gulfport, Mississippi
Nicole Perez, 27, from Metairie, Louisiana
Reggie Hunter, 37, from Prairieville, Louisiana
Martin Bech, 27, from New York City, New York
Terrence Kennedy, 63, from New Orleans, Louisiana
Elliot Wilkinson, 40, from Slidell, Louisiana
William Dimaio, 25, from Holmdel, New Jersey
The identity of one other victim is unknown, with efforts to identity the person continuing.
The preliminary cause of death for all the victims is blunt force injuries, according to the New Orleans coroner.
The FBI has also revealed that before his attack, Jabbar set fire to a house he had rented in an effort to destroy evidence.
He had placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms.
But the fire, which was started in the hallway, had extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms.
Bomb-making materials were found both at the rented accommodation in New Orleans and Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
But Littler became the youngest-ever world darts champion – winning a £500,000 prize – in front of a raucous London crowd.
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Temperatures are expected to plunge to minus 8C as weather warnings for snow and ice are set to remain in place over the weekend.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued cold weather health alerts for all of England ahead of a week of low temperatures.
Amber alerts were issued from 12pm on Thursday until next Wednesday, meaning a rise in deaths is likely, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions.
Temperatures of between minus 4C and 5C were expected in parts of Wales and southern England on Thursday night, plunging to minus 8C in northern England and Scotland.
Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “There’ll be widespread frost across the country from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
“It will be comfortably below where we should be for this time of year and I would expect temperatures to hit minus 8C in parts of Scotland.”
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Mr Stroud confirmed conditions should become warmer by the end of this weekend before cold weather strikes again early next week.
He said: “The second half of the weekend should be in the high singles or low doubles.
“But temperatures will dive again next week, particularly on Monday and Tuesday.
“They should start to improve towards the latter end of the week. But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge until then.”
The NHS Black Country integrated care board has warned the public to “avoid going out early when the frost is thick or late at night when it’s dark”, adding people should keep their hands free and wear shoes with a good grip.
In Herefordshire, the Wye Valley NHS Trust told people to “have sufficient food and medicine and take measures to reduce draughts in your home”.
London councils activated an emergency accommodation protocol on Thursday for people sleeping rough in freezing conditions.
The emergency measures, which see extra beds made available, have been active for three nights so far this winter.
Meanwhile, several weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office ahead of a blast of snow over the weekend.
The yellow warning indicates there could be icy surfaces in northern and western Scotland, the northwest of England and Northern Ireland.
It will remain in place until 10am on Friday morning, and could make for difficult travelling conditions, the forecaster warned.
A snow and ice warning is also in place covering parts of northern Scotland until 10am on Friday.
A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place from noon on Saturday until late on Sunday night and covers all regions of England, other than the South West, Wales and parts of southern Scotland.
About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20cm to 30cm over high ground in Wales and the Pennines, the Met Office said.
Strong winds could lead to snow drifts in some areas, and freezing rain as temperatures creep up could add to the risk of ice.
A separate warning for snow is in place for most of Scotland from midnight on Sunday until 12pm on Monday.
The cold snap comes as a major incident was declared in Greater Manchester by police on Wednesday after flooding forced homes to be evacuated and closed train lines and roads following heavy rain.